sabrina’s Reviews > The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It > Status Update

*cheaper to develop a drug similar to those already on the market (ie change one molecule) than to create brand new, innovative drugs -> that’s another 20 year patent and ability to sell the drug at the brand name price.

*drug companies secure patents on new drugs before clinical testing begins to prevent competition during the testing period. Since clinical trials take a few years and drugs can’t be sold when undergoing trials, the time it takes to perform them eats away at the patent life. So are drug companies rushing clinical trials to maximize profit??

*a type of clinical trial known as phase iv trials are, not to test new drugs for fda approval, but to find new uses for drugs already on the market, as well as finding long term effects.

*drug companies claim that the drugs need to be as expensive as they are bc they need to cover the cost for research and development. Come to find out they do not spend as much on r+d as they say they do. Moreover, there is no need for costs to be that high anyway when you consider the fact that the industry is basically risk-proof (financially speaking). They get paid no matter what. Tax payers fund their research, patent protection for 20 yrs, tax breaks(r+d is tax deductible), and tax credits which are granted to drugs that are proved “unlikely to be profitable” (ie drugs that target less than 200,000 or so people with a certain ailment, hiv/aids drugs).